Sisters smile for camera in magazine photo shoot

Published: Friday, November 05, 1999

RAY WESTBROOKAvalanche-Journal

Breanna Ellis and her sisters, Bliss and Bonnie, modeled fall fashions in Los Angeles during the summer in a photo shoot for Jump magazine, and later modeled trendy clothes for a show seen on MSNBC in New York.

Breanna, a senior at Coronado High School, participated in the photo session in California as part of the magazine's penchant for using "real" girls instead of professional models in the photo shoots.

Her sisters are students at the University of Texas at Austin, but served summer internships at the magazine.

Breanna accompanied them to work at the magazine after being flown to Los Angeles by the publication.

"My sisters were there for two months, and I was there with my mom for almost three weeks," Breanna said.

The magazine, which targets teen fashion readers, featured the three sisters in a photo spread for its Winter issue.

"Jump is the first magazine to talk about and feature 'real girls' in over half of our fashion, beauty and feature stories," said Lori Berger, editor in chief.

"At Jump, we encourage girls to be themselves and to be happy with who they are."

Breanna also found that to be true.

"It's not that the magazine is telling you to look a certain way or act a certain way; it's just telling you to be yourself and be real.

"I think it's a good magazine."

She said the photo shoot was done in one long, exhausting day, and hundreds of shots were taken for the spread.

Overall, the experience was enjoyable to Breanna.

"I had a lot of fun."

But not everything was easy. The work began at 5 a.m., and concluded at 6 p.m.

"It was really fun at the beginning, but by the end of the day we were ready to stop," she said.

All expenses were paid by the magazine, including the trip to New York.

Breanna thinks she also might like to try an internship at the magazine after entering college, where she is planning to major in journalism or public relations.

The prospect of a career in modeling is a question mark to Breanna:

"If the opportunity ever came around, it would be fun, but it wasn't really my thing. It was fun, and the day we did the modeling in New York was a lot of fun."

Ray Westbrook can be contacted at 766-8711 or rwestbrook@lubbockonline.com